Methane is not as widely discussed as the carbon dioxide that results from burning fossil fuels, but it has become a rare area of progress this week at the global talks.

It is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane only lingers in the atmosphere about a decade after it is released, but it is about 80 times more powerful in the short term at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, which remains in the air for centuries.

Basically: oil firms didn't care about methane released into the atmosphere unless it reached concentrations high enough to cause fires and explosions. So there's a history of things like oilfield equipment powered by releasing compressed methane, as well unfixed leaks and unlit flares. The Inflation Reduction Act has a tax on large-scale methane release by the oil and gas industry, so now there's a lot of interest in finding and fixing leaks.

Politico.com

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults.

Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, “The Revivalist Manifesto,” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies.

The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Other sections of the book defend podcaster Joe Rogan from racism charges after it was revealed he used the N-word, which Rogan later apologized for. The book also disparages poor voters as “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency” and easy to manipulate with “Black Lives Matter ‘defund the police’ pandering.”

“Scott McKay presents a valuable and timely contribution with The Revivalist Manifesto because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing,” Johnson writes in his 300-word foreword.

Washington Post: Donald Trump can be held civilly liable for the actions of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, an appeals court ruled Friday in a long-awaited decision that could clear the way for lawsuits seeking financial damages from the former president.

Newsweek.com

From the early 1990s until her retirement in 2005, she was the indisputable swing justice

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the justice who held the court’s center for more than a generation, died Friday, the court said in a statement.

Her cause of death was complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness. She was 93.

Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that O'Connor "blazed an historic trail as our nation's first female justice."

"It's called precedent," the Senate Judiciary Committee chair said of violating the same rule that Republicans ignored to move forward with judicial nominees.

Guess which party he belongs to? I'll give you a hint: it doesn't start with a D.

New York Republican Rep. George Santos’ short and dazzling political career came to an end on Friday as a supermajority of his colleagues executed a maneuver as rare as the man they’re poised to evict from the House.

No less than two-thirds of the chamber voted for a resolution from Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, a fellow Republican from Mississippi, that made Santos only the third person to be booted from Congress since the Civil War – a dishonorable distinction previously reserved for convicted felons.

Santos is not one – at least, not yet. He’s been charged with a litany of wrongdoing, from fraud and money laundering to theft and stealing donors’ identities. His list of offenses, some alleged and others confirmed (often by him), runs much longer and places him comfortably among the foremost rogues and reprobates to make a cameo on America’s nearly 250-year-old political scene.

In less sweeping terms, Santos’ many transgressions are sure to endanger the GOP House majority, thin before and now looking downright bony after his number was taken off the board.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) took a swipe at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) standing in the GOP presidential primary during a debate Thursday on Fox News.

“This is just a reminder…It’s a question some people are probably asking — I know Nikki Haley’s campaign is asking: When are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump in this nomination,” Newsom said. “She laid you out.”

“You wish,” DeSantis shot back.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/wx3Fv?wr=true

One of former President Trump’s co-defendants in the sweeping Georgia election interference case plans to meet with investigators in states still probing efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

Kenneth Chesebro — a Trump lawyer who helped craft the alternate electors scheme pushing to certify slates of Trump-supporting “fake” electors in battleground states instead of the true electoral votes cast for Biden — plans to meet with investigators in Nevada and Arizona in the near future, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Chesebro pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to file false documents, a lesser charge than the seven felony counts he originally faced including a state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charge. Those charges mainly pertained to Chesebro’s efforts to organize the pro-Trump electors, who ultimately met in seven states won by now-President Biden.